The innovation concerns an electronic alarm clock with a servicing or adjusting arrangement for the time adjustment and with a circuit with a time of day counter as well as with a storage for the time of a waking-up alarm and a triggering circuit, made especially by way of integrated technique, furthermore with a digital display arrangement for a continuous display of the time of day as well as a selective gating of a wake-up time at the same place, whereby a manually operable selective switch has been provided for the selection of the part or type of display wake-up time or time of day, as well as with a triggering switch for the adjustment or correction of the momentary display of the individual parts or places of display, hours and minutes and, in addition, a turn-off for the alarm signal.
As a result of a first proposed watch in German OS 2,302,978, a digital display wrist watch has been disclosed which can be used as a time display device and, in addition, as a stop watch or as an alarm clock. In the following, however, we will enter only into more detail with regard to the additional function as an alarm clock. This wrist watch has as a display mechanism a customary seven-segment liquid crystal arrangement for the presentation of hours and minutes. A corresponding integrated electronic control has been disposed in the inside of the housing. As servicing elements there are provided: two triggering switches for altering or adjustment of the hour and minute recording, a sliding change-over switch for the selection of either the time of day (existing time) or of the time of waking up (alarm time) for alteration, as well as a turn-off button for the alarm signal.
The adjustment of the waking up time, as well as the time of day, is accomplished by way of the two triggering switches for the places of displaying the hours and the minutes. The kind of display to be adjusted, i.e., existing time or alarm time, is preselected by shifting the previously mentioned sliding change-over switch and by gating, i.e., displaying at the same time the corresponding waking-up time or time-of-day on the display field.
Beside the previously described watch and its servicing arrangement, there exist, especially in the case of watches with selective displaying of the time of day and the date, very different switching and pressure key arrangements. In this connection, we should like to mention a second German OS 2 319 437 which has likewise for its object an electronic watch. This watch has a digital display arrangement with which the date, the day, the hour, the minute and the second are displayed. As an operating element there has been provided first, a correcting switch for correction of the display and second, a selecting switch for selection of a certain display place or position, which is to be corrected at any time. In addition, there is a safety switch which will prevent unintentional operation of one of the two switches and thus any effect on the display. Whenever the safety switch is released, then by repeated pressing of the selecting switch, a desired place of the display can be selected. The place selected each time has been characterized or indicated by a flicker rhythm. If now the correcting switch is also pressed simultaneously, then the selected place of display, or its display value, or symbol can be changed.
A third proposed watch (German AS 2,238,827) has an electronic correction for the time and date recording. Merely a rotary switch has been provided for the above mentioned function, which switch can be rotated into several positions. The individual positions, namely a starting position, a zero position for seconds, a correcting position for hours and a correcting position for dates, are the possible functional positions. If they are selected by the rotary switch, then corresponding correction of the recording can be carried out without operating any additional switches, after a short period of delay.
The disclosures of the above mentioned patents are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
The prior art servicing arrangements for the adjustment or correction of a digital display for electronic clocks or watches have various disadvantages. In a case where the determining of whether the time-of-day or alarm time representation is to be displayed for correction depends solely upon the positioning of a sliding change-over switch, the wrong representation will unintentionally be changed if the operator forgets to position the change-over switch properly. In a complicated arrangement wherein a predetermined number of repeated pressings of a switch for selecting the particular place or digit of the display conditioned for change or correction, an error can easily be made in the place or digit selected. Where positioning of a rotary switch determines which of, for example, three display places or digits is subjected to correction, the movable arm of the switch must be moved over a first contact on one side of the neutral position, without acting through that contact, in order to reach the second contact on the same side of neutral. In this latter case, poor reaction or carelessness of the operator can result in unintentional operation through the contact to be passed over.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to create a servicing or adjusting arrangement for an electronic watch with digital recording in which disadvantages of the prior art arrangements will be avoided. The servicing arrangement of the invention a simple provides and uncomplicated handling of the individual servicing elements on the basis of an unequivocal functioning assignment, so that mistakes in servicing will be precluded to the farthest possible extent.